HOUSTON — A memorial service to celebrate the life of Dr. Thomas Freeman will be held Tuesday, June 16, on the Texas Southern University campus.
The legendary TSU debate coach was 100 years old when he passed away on June 6.
TSU will host a public visitation Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., followed by the memorial service. Both will be held at the Health and Physical Education (HP&E) Arena at 3010 Wheeler Avenue.
The event will be live-streamed on www.tsu.edu and on TSU’s social media channels.
Freeman arrived at TSU in 1949 and founded the debate team. Under his leadership, TSU debaters won hundreds of national and international titles.
His students included Dr. Martin Luther King and Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland, who both served in Congress.
“Students all over the world credit Dr. Freeman for instilling in them strong oratory skills and preparing them to compete at the highest levels, whether that was on a debate stage, in a courtroom, or a corporate boardroom,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said.
In 2018, Turner selected Freeman as the recipient of the Living Legend Award for the first-ever Mayor’s History Makers Luncheon.
In 2019, Freeman was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from The National Speech & Debate Association.
“We say thank you, Dr. Thomas Freeman, for being a giant with broad enough shoulders to support our work to make this world better for the marginalized. We say thank you, Dr. Freeman, for showing us that personal and intentional mentoring creates students who will make a difference,” NSDA board member Byron R. Arthur said at the award presentation ceremony. “And we say one more time, thank you, Dr. Freeman, for reminding us that as educators, we must continue to dream of a world of equity and use speech and debate to make those dreams come true.”
After retiring in 2013, Freeman continued to serve as the debate coach emeritus.
Freeman, who would have turned 101 later this month, is survived by his wife Clarice.
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